On Monday, presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders spoke in front of about 12,000 students at Liberty University. The evangelical Christian school, founded by the late Rev. Jerry Falwell, is a frequent stop for candidates looking to court conservative Christian voters.

That Sanders – a Jewish Democrat – felt the need to reach out to young Christians who will almost certainly vote Republican is demonstrative of the immense sway Christianity holds on the American political system.

With virtually every serious candidate for political office in the United States constantly pandering to the religious right, candidates consistently overlook one of the country’s fastest-growing minorities – atheists, agnostics and the religiously unaffiliated.

From 2007 to 2014, the percentage of Americans who claim to be unaffiliated with a religion increased by about 7 percent to an all-time high of about 23 percent, according to a survey from the Pew Research Center. The percentage of people who claim Christian faith fell by nearly 8 percent to a still sizable majority of 70.6 percent.

“It’s symbolically problematic that there aren’t any open or uncloseted atheists holding public office in the United States,” said Alex Fabrick, a co-chair of WSU’s Secular Student Alliance and a self-declared strong agnostic.

“I know that I can be fairly represented by a religious person; not every religious person is inherently going to discriminate against atheists or not look out for the interests of atheist citizens, but there are certainly a lot of religious politicians who will do those things,” Fabrick said.

Only two U.S. Representatives have ever openly admitted to being irreligious; former California Rep. Pete Stark – the first ever openly atheist member of Congress – and former Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank, who only admitted to being agnostic after his retirement from Congress.

“I wonder if in the United States we might have religious minorities and liberal Christians starting to warm up to the idea of electing an atheist or an agnostic (as president). I think that is foreseeable, but not in the very near future,” Fabrick said.

Of the 435 current members of Congress, not one openly admits to being religiously unaffiliated. However, that may have less to do with their genuine convictions than it has to do with the American public’s distrust of and hesitance to vote for atheists.

Last August, a director of the American Humanist Association claimed that 24 members of Congress had privately admitted to not believing in God.

“It’s a sad environment when you can’t say what you think. Every (politician) has to be ostensibly Christian at the very least,” Fabrick said.

In some states, admitting to atheism is not just politically unwise, it’s technically against the law. The state constitutions of Arkansas, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas all contain language that prohibits atheists from holding public office.

The “No Religious Test Clause” in the U.S. Constitution renders these laws effectively meaningless, but they certainly paint a picture of the historical demonization of atheism in the U.S.

“Over time, as large secular organizations like Ex-Muslims of North America and the Freedom from Religion Foundation continue to build communities of irreligious people, it will allow more people to explore the idea of irreligion more fully and make it safer for them to come out,” Fabrick said.

It’s no secret that the number one priority for most politicians in America is getting reelected.

If the trend of Americans turning away from religion continues, politicians won’t be able to ignore religiously unaffiliated voters for much longer.

Russell Behrmann is a senior communication major from bellevue. He can be contacted at 335-2290 or by [email protected]. The opinions expressed in this Column are not necessarily those of the staff of The Daily Evergreen or those of The Office of Student Media.